Tuesday, November 01, 2011

A.L. Home League Recap Part I: Auction

I take pride in winning expert leagues. But I take even more pride in winning my A.L.-only league. 2011 was the league's 25th year in existence (and my 16th). Entering 2011, I had taken home four titles - more than any other owner since that first year back in 1996. But it's never enough. I want to win every year. When I stop wanting to win, I'll stop playing.

Coming into the season, I thought I had a third or fourth place team, but nothing like a winner. There were two teams that came in with strong freeze lists and had solid (if not spectacular) auctions that I thought kept them the front-runners.

Was I right?

2011 Gianella Quints, Billy Almon Brown Graduate League

#

Player

$

Sal

+/-

MY
BID

C

Mike Napoli

$28

$19

9

$17

C

A.J. Pierzynski

$12

$10

2

$10

1B

Adrian Gonzalez

$38

$41

-3

$34

2B

Gordon Beckham (F)

$6

$10

-4

$17

SS

Marco Scutaro (F)

$15

$3

12

$9

3B

Mark Reynolds

$20

$23

-3

$21

CO

Matt LaPorta (F)

$9

$10

-1

$10

MI

Orlando Cabrera

$6

$2

4

$6

OF

Brett Gardner (F)

$25

$16

9

$25

OF

Ryan Langerhans

-$0

$1

-1

$1

OF

David Murphy

$15

$8

7

$10

OF

Juan Pierre (F)

$20

$29

-9

$25

OF

Michael Saunders

-$2

$2

-4

$5

DH

Ramon Castro (F)

$2

$1

1

$2

P

Josh Beckett

$29

$15

14

$17

P

Erik Bedard (F)

$6

$7

-1

$7

P

Kyle Farnsworth

$28

$4

24

$5

P

Dan Haren

$32

$31

1

$26

P

J.P. Howell

-$3

$1

-4

$2

P

James Shields

$36

$14

22

$13

P

Kevin Slowey

-$9

$1

-10

$2

P

Matt Thornton (F)

$4

$6

-2

$24

P

C.J. Wilson (F)

$26

$6

20

$12

Total

$345

$260

+85

$300

As it turns out, I bought a much better team than I possibly could have dreamed of buying coming into the auction. Not only did I buy more value than any other team, but I blew away the next team by $22.

The problem I had was that while I had the most value, I didn't have the best team.

2011 Billy Almon Brown Graduate "Draft" Standings

Team

HR

RBI

SB

BA

W

SV

ERA

WHIP

TOT

$

Kirby's Jihad

10

12

9

12

2

12

4

10

71

$323

Glanvillage People

7

8

10

5

7

11

10

11

69

$312

Gianella Quints

5.5

6

7

10

9

6

12

12

67.5

$345

The Benedictines

1

5

12

11

3

9

8

8

57

$295

JSC's

11

10

6

3

4.5

10

7

5

56.5

$272

Philly D Batteries

12

11

8

7

4.5

3.5

5

3

54

$269

Whit Fielders

4

2

4

4

12

8

9

7

50

$261

Ivry Towers

9

9

11

8

1

5

1

1

45

$234

Dewey Decimators

5.5

7

5

1

8

7

3

6

42.5

$212

Guerrero's Gueros

3

3

3

2

6

3.5

11

9

40.5

$217

Good Fellas

8

4

2

6

11

1

2

4

38

$208

100% Fun

2

1

1

9

10

2

6

2

33

$187

An extreme lead in a category leads to value not producing points...and the pitching staff I bought was incredible. Beckett, Haren, Shields and Wilson were the core of an incredible staff and Farnsworth gave me the closer that Thornton was supposed to be. The result was a 0.36 ERA lead and 0.101 WHIP lead over my closest competitors.

This presented opportunities I didn't anticipate having when the season started...but also challenges I would have to meet in order to maximize my point total to produce a winner. I'll look at how I revised my strategy - and what worked and what didn't - next time out.